The Lost Items of Aphrodite
by PegasusHydra
Summary: Jenna and Spring attend Milky Way Academy until monsters finally attack and they're taken to Camp Half-Blood. There, they get a quest from Aphrodite to find her lost outfit and makeup, and more importantly her special perfume (which they couldn't care less about by Valentine's Day. But the thing is, will they be able to cooperate and complete the quest?
1. Chapter 1

**I'm rewriting this for like the third time... Yeah, I'm awesome. Anyway, this is set in late January, so don't be confused about that. :)**

**Also since Hydra probably left the PJO fandom, I'll probably running the account by myself. -_-**

**R&R please!**

* * *

"See you later, Mom," I said as I got off the car.

She smiled at me. My mom was one of the nicest people I knew. She was old, but she looked young for her age. She had dark brown hair with the occasional gray streaks. "By later, I hope you don't mean when you get kicked out."

I rolled my eyes. "Mom, that never happened, and it never will."

She laughed. "I'll trust you on that then. Don't let me down." She rolled up the windows and drove away.

I shouldered my bags and walked inside my school, Milky Way Academy. It's a weird name, plus it's named after a type of chocolate. Or maybe just one of the galaxies. I don't know, but the students always get a bar of Milky Way from the cafeteria lady whenever they buy lunch. Whether that's meant as a joke or not, I don't know.

Anyway, my name is Jenna. This is my second semester in Milky Way Academy. The students here classify me as a nerd, super smart, violent, and strong… though they're obviously not meant as compliments.

I had just come back from home where I had spent my weekend for my birthday. Our school let us go home for holidays when we didn't have classes which fortunately included our birthdays.

"Hey, Jenna!" Celine called running up to me.

I met her gaze and gave her a slight smile. Celine was one of my few friends here, and was almost nothing like me; sleeping during class, passing notes when she's awake, and not really much having any care in the world.

Celine had blond hair that reached a little below her shoulders and bright blue eyes. She was around my height, which to say, is pretty short. Or maybe it's just that I spent my time around too many tall people.

"So how was your birthday?" she asked as we strode through the crowd of students.

"It was great," I said flatly. Of course, I didn't mention that we had a small (or not so small) argument of where we were going to go for dinner, and the lack of birthday gifts.

"Like I believe that," she scoffed.

"It was sarcasm."

The bell just happened to ring then for classes to start.

"Darn it," I said, trying to get my panic down. I knew I should've packed my stuff yesterday. "I'm late."

"Relax, you have six minutes!" Celine said. We were such opposites it was almost impossible to remember how we became friends.

"Yeah, but I need to get my textbook from my locker, and the class is like on the other side of campus."

"I thought you were going to say that, so I got it for you," she said rolling her eyes as she tossed me my history textbook.

"Hey, be careful with it!" I said, fumbling to catch it. "And how'd you figure out my locker combo anyway?"

"I didn't," she said. "I had Spring do it for me."

I made a _pffft_ sound. "Spring? Geez, didn't think you would do that."

"Why, don't you like her?"

I coughed. Spring was this girl who was in 8th grade. She's good at sports, has many friends, and another person that's the total opposite of me, except more. I preferred quiet places, she liked loud places. I liked to be alone, she always hung out with a huge group… And a whole lot of other differences.

But most of all, she was known for her persuasion skills and being able to hack and steal things.

You know how there's people that you just tend to hate without even knowing them well? Yeah, Spring was just one of those people for me.

"Let's just go to class," I mumbled.

We arrived two minutes early and got in our seats. My other friend, Opal, waved hi at me when I passed by.

After a bunch of more students came (with a few that came in tardy), Mrs. Miller cleared her throat.

"Good morning class," she said, and we all greeted her dully.

No one seemed to like Mrs. Miller. She was in her sixties, and had light brown and gray hair in a messy bun. She was skinny, but short, and had green eyes behind her glasses. Her lessons were usually boring and consisted of some boring note taking and occasional snores from the students in the back.

"Okay, today we will be learning about feudalism," she started. "Please open up your textbooks to page 343."

I sighed and opened up my book. Mrs. Miller put up some questions on the board and gave us five minutes to do it. I skimmed through the lesson and finished in less than half that time.

I was relieved when the bell finally rang. We were all out of that classroom before she said, "You're dismissed."

"So!" Opal said walking next to me. "How was that history lesson?"

"Boring," I answered as we headed to English.

"Well, I hope you got the notes, 'cause I was snoozing," Celine said.

I rolled my eyes. "I bet you want me to do that for every class, huh?"

"Duh."

I huffed. "Fine, then you're covering me for PE. I don't want Coach Hedge mad at me."

"Deal," she grinned.

I took some extra notes for Celine (luckily, Opal was good and took her own notes) until it came to sixth period, PE.

Our sixth period had a mix of all middle school grades, though mostly it was seventh and eighth graders. Coach Hedge was my teacher, and I honestly wished he would be a bit lighter on the push-ups. My arms were aching from the ones I had to do yesterday… I probably didn't do them properly anyway. Yeah, I was guilty, but I can't fix it.

I stuffed my backpack in my locker and ran to the gym. I accidentally ran into someone, and I mumbled a "Sorry," without even seeing who they were.

I hurried to the locker room and got changed.

"Close call," Opal whispered as I got in roll call.

"Yeah," I said tying up my long black hair.

The class leader came up front. "Sorry, but Coach Hedge is locked up—I mean, isn't here at the moment. We'll just do a warm-up lap around the yard, and have free play."

Spring came up and put an arm around her shoulder. "So what are we talking about here?"

I tried to keep a sour expression off my face as I saw her. I mean, I didn't _hate_ her, but we just didn't match.

Spring had medium length hair, a bit lighter than mine, and blue eyes. She was around my height, which again came up to the result of either her being short, or me being tall (I wouldn't mind either choice).

She was one of Coach Hedge's favorites. She had a lot of friends and had knack of persuading people into deals.

"Um… Nothing?" she said. "Just talking about Coach Hedge."

Spring nodded. "Oh, that. He got locked in his office with some cupcakes."

I didn't know if she meant literal cupcakes, or student cupcakes (he insisted on calling us cupcakes).

"Anyway, go on your lap!" the class leader yelled.

I grumbled in complaint and went on my lap.

Back, I heard them say, "You know we're going to be in big trouble when he finds out, right?"

"Hey, it's fine! I'm confident in my pranking skills."

"Hey, at least it's free play," Celine said as she caught up.

"Still! This is awful!"

"You think anything about running is awful," Opal said.

"Nah, track was okay. I'm only good at running short distances."

"Everyone, in the gym!" Spring yelled as we finished. "Coach found out!"

"That's why we don't lock up teachers in their own office!" I hissed as I ran in.


	2. Chapter 2

"Sit in roll call," the class leader ordered. "And if any of you are related to this event, go hide somewhere."

No one moved, and the class leader glared at Spring who shrugged innocently.

I smacked my face. My eyes met with Opal's and she did her thing of rolling her eyes and twirling her finger around her temple.

I snickered, and Coach Hedge came in.

His face was an expression of pure anger. He also had his baseball bat which was not a good thing.

He smacked his bat on the gym floor three times which echoed. I winced at the sound. "Alright, cupcakes!" he yelled. "Which one of you locked me up in my office?"

There was no answer.

He grumbled. "Fine, all of you out! Hundred push-ups, hundred sit-ups, go! And Yi and Rhodes, stay here."

Celine gave me a _What did you do?_ look, and I shrugged.

She made a switching motion with her hands, asking me if we wanted to switch. Yep, this is what I meant by "covering" for me.

It was actually a joke, with the wig and contacts… but surprisingly, it worked. We just carry around the wigs and sometimes switch places with each other—it works best in PE since all of us are wearing the same uniform.

I shook my head, and she rolled her eyes and walked off.

Spring had a calm and relaxed expression on her face, but I knew better. Her right arm was grabbing her left and she was resting her head between her knees, rocking back and forth.

Once everyone was out, Coach Hedge turned to us.

"It wasn't me," Spring said immediately.

I glared at her, but she wasn't even paying attention. Just like her to weasel her way out of a situation.

Coach Hedge turned to me. "It's either you or her. Just say the truth."

My body became stiff. It wasn't the first time Coach talked to me about my actions, but I didn't like being accused of something I didn't do. "Why are you singling us out? And it wasn't me." My voice sounded strange to my own ears.

"Sorry, say that again?"

I repeated the same thing, doing my best to keep out the anger and frustration of my voice. It trembled either way.

"You're a troublemaker, Yi," he said. "And Rhodes is a trickster."

"I can live with that," Spring mumbled.

"And how exactly am I a troublemaker?" I said, not pleased with my description as much as Spring.

"You beat someone up," Coach reminded me.

"He was being racist!" I protested.

It happened about a month ago, when an idiot guy commented something about Asians and their eyes, and I punched him, resulting in a black eye, a broken nose, and a bruise on his leg.

"Hey, fights are good! I love fighting. That's why I let you go easy. Anyway, who locked me in?!" he said going back to the point of why we were here.

"It was her," I said glancing at Spring.

She scowled at me. "Yeah Coach. Sorry."

"All right Rhodes. Go run a mile or two tomorrow. I would make it four, but you're a great student," he said. He waved his baseball bat towards the door, gesturing for us to leave.

I stood up first, a scowl on my face, when the gym wall in front of me fell.

I immediately backed up, the broken piece almost toppling me backwards. Spring just stood behind me with her mouth open.

"What the heck is _that?"_ she said.

I looked at what she was pointing at and saw a huge 10-foot humanoid being with one bloodshot eye.

"A Cyclops," I said under my breath. I remembered reading about it from a book… and yeah, I read lots of books.

Outside, students just looked at the Cyclops like a minor obstacle in their way. The Cyclops roared and threw aside a piece of the wall. Unfortunately, it was at me.

I was too slow this time, and it bounced off my right knee onto my toes.

"Ow," I said quietly, and kicked the piece off with my other foot. Great, know I busted all of my toes.

I ran back to where Coach Hedge was.

"Is that an illusion? Am I dreaming?" Spring demanded.

"Calm down cupcake! All it wants to do is tear you apart and eat you for dinner," Coach Hedge said.

"That doesn't help."

"So what do we do?" I asked stretching my right leg. The pain was still there, but it felt a bit better. "Run?"

Coach Hedge raised an eyebrow. "You're kidding right?" He raised his bat and it slowly morphed into a club. "DIE!"

"Whoa, Coach!" Spring yelled, and everything froze.

The only things that were going on in my mind were, _Why the heck is a mythological creature here? Why is my coach so eager to kill things? Am I dreaming?_ And a whole lot of other questions. So I wasn't really surprised when things froze and a woman appeared out of nowhere.

There was a flash in front of me and a woman appeared. The woman had stormy gray eyes and black hair. Her eyes were intimidating as if she was thinking the best way to take me out in a fight.

_Put out your hands,_ she said.

"Who are you?" I asked, my mental shields going up.

_Would you disobey a goddess?_ she chided.

"S-so you're…" I racked through the names of the goddesses I read about—which was a lot. Finally a name came to me. "Athena?"

Athena nodded. _Put out your hands,_ she said again.

I put out my hands and Athena gave me a thick book with an olive tree on the cover.

_You'll have to find out how to use it on your own, _she said firmly.

I nodded and she disappeared. I opened the book and there it said "Instructions." Wow. Real subtle.

_Think about the book you want to read. If you don't, you'll just get the default book, a book about Greek monsters and heroes and gods and weapons (which is the most important feature). If you think of a book you want to read, the book will automatically change to that book (this is not recommended in battle, although it won't be too bad if you're reading your favorite book as you die a painful death)._

_You can summon objects by picturing them in your mind. There are also pictures included in the book if you want it there if you have trouble picturing them. It'll disappear when you're done with its use._

_If you ever happen to lose this book, it'll always appear back in your bag. If you lose your bag, you lose this book as well if you don't get another bag in 24 hours._

I looked down at my book and flipped it open to a random page of weapons from swords to spears, and even catapults to a katana. I flipped through the pages until I found the one I liked.

I quickly scanned the text, about how to hold it, use it, and all those fun stuff. It was slightly difficult with my dyslexia, but my dyslexia was on the weaker side. So I didn't have trouble reading big writing (which I'm thankful for because of taking notes), but for reading novels or something with tiny text… I was toast. And on some cases, I was usually able to read fairly quickly if I was interested in it.

Luckily, I was.

Time unfroze, leaving me staring at the monster as Coach started banging its knee with his cudgel.

"Don't just stand there!" he yelled. "Do something!"

Spring looked around and found a bow and arrow in the gym closet. She nocked an arrow.

I pictured the three-foot-long bronze sword on the page in my mind, and sure enough, it appeared lying on top of the pages.

I grabbed the sword and dropped the book. Behind me, Spring fired her arrow. Obviously, it didn't go the way she planned. Luckily the Cyclops was large enough so that the arrow _did_ hit. He growled and threw another piece of the broken wall at Spring.

I made sure my grip on the sword was comfortable—or comfortable as can be—and charged.

Too late, I thought, _What am I doing? I could be killed!_ But I didn't stop. I slashed at the Cyclops's foot —revenge for busting mine—and he roared. He shook off Coach Hedge a bit too hard while grabbing his pants, and I covered my eyes.

I heard the Cyclops starting to move, and I ducked under it. I heard a big _boom_, and assumed that the Cyclops landed a punch somewhere. Then there was a _whoosh_ of an arrow and a softer _boom._

"Oh my God…" Spring said. "Coach, why are you so… _furry?"_

_Furry?_

I looked and saw Coach's shaggy hindquarters. He had hooves for feet. His hat also flew off revealing horns. His looks were just like a satyr's. I didn't want to think about it.

I tried not to pay too much attention to it. I slashed the back of the Cyclops's leg, and it crumpled to the ground again. I rolled out of the way so not to get crushed by its huge butt.

Right then, Spring aimed another arrow, and whether by luck or skill, it hit the Cyclops in the eye and in disintegrated into yellow dust.

I coughed and tried to brush off the dust off myself. It would be a pain to get it off my hair.

"Hey, why'd you kill it kid!" Coach raged. "You could've left the last bit for me!"

The sword disappeared in a _poof_ of silver smoke and I went back to retrieve my book.

Spring dropped the bow. "Coach," she said. She was covered in white dust from the plaster compared to my yellow dust from the monster, and she had a huge scratch from the flying wall. "The others are staring at us."

"Doesn't matter," he yelled. "You two go get changed and go to your dorms. Tell them that you're going on an overnight field trip with me tomorrow and pack your stuff. And come here tomorrow before classes start."

"Whoa, whoa," Spring said. "We're not going anywhere. Especially not with a… half-man, half-goat thing." She paused, thinking of what the proper name was. "Right, a satyr."

"You're in danger if you stay here any longer," he warned. "You want to take the risk?"

Part of me didn't want to leave. I didn't want to leave with a maniacal coach. Plus, what would I tell my parents and Celine and Opal? And we only had a few months of school left.

The other part wanted to leave. I hated school. I hated being teased for being Asian or being a nerd, and who liked school in general anyway? And I might be able to fight myself out of a situation if it was necessary… hopefully it _won't_ be necessary.

"All right Coach," I said. "Tomorrow at the gym. Bye."

I jogged out of the gym, making a path of yellow dust all the way to the locker room, vaguely aware of Spring sighing and coming after me.


	3. Chapter 3

**This ended up a bit worse than I expected... Oh well. **

**And thanks a lot to Yuly Pinilla for beind the first to faving this story. :) **

**R&R~**

* * *

"So what happened?" Opal demanded as we made our way to homeroom.

She wasn't much of the "demanding" type, but she knows all the things that people have gotten themselves in trouble for. In those cases, she was pretty forceful.

"It probably wasn't much," Celine drawled. Obviously, she really didn't care about anything. "Isn't that right, Jen?"

I scowled. "Jenna," I corrected, emphasizing the -_na._ "And, no… I didn't get in trouble. Just going to a field trip with Coach Hedge and Spring."

Opal raised her eyebrows that got lost in her black hair. "Is that so? You should get ready for all the trouble you'll be in—you know, Spring she actually got in trouble many times—"

She got cut off when a cold blast of wind whipped her hair into my face. I swatted away her long black hair with bright turquoise highlights. Of course her hair had to be long.

"Let's get inside," I suggested, and we ran in the classroom.

We rushed to our seats. The teacher had smartly scattered us throughout the room which was annoying.

The bell rang and I groaned. Thirty-three minutes of nothing, starting now… Or not.

I brought out the book given to me by Athena. I still didn't know what the heck was going on, but she probably gave this to me for a reason.

I started reading through the weapons, sighing once in a while because of my stupid dyslexia, and got through about a fourth of the book by the bell rang. I was pretty pleased. The book was _thick!_

"So, you doing anything during our so called 'free-time?'" Celine asked.

"Uh… no?" I stammered, cursing myself for sounding so uncertain.

"You want to tag along with us then?" Opal smiled. "Like a final trip?"

Celine shoved Opal with her shoulder.

"What do you mean _final?"_ I said.

"Well, you know," Celine said carefully. "There's rumors that whoever goes with Coach Hedge on field trips usually never come back."

She let that suspend in the air for a bit.

"Huh," I shrugged. "Any proof?"

"Just come along!" Opal pleaded. "Spring already convinced the principal to let us go!"

"Slow down there," I said putting my hands up. "I don't even know what's going on here!"

Celine rolled her eyes. "We're going shopping."

"Or eating. I prefer the latter," Opal confessed.

"Fine," I grumbled. "What time are we leaving?"

"Now!" Celine squealed and dragged me to the front gate.

I let myself be dragged along with Opal running after us.

"Okay, here's the deal!" Spring said. "The principal wants us back by… uh… five! That's about two hours… Make it worth it!"

The people gathered up there cheered and climbed over the fence.

"You're kidding me," I said.

"No duh," Opal said. "We're breaking the rules, but Spring negotiated things with Mr. Duke."

I climbed over, no problem, and my friends jumped over.

"'No leaving the school unless emergency or on break. If on a short trip, must be supervised,'" I mumbled. "Guess we broke _that_ rule."

"Relax," Celine said. "We'll be back before five if that makes you happy."

"A bit," I admitted. "But don't ditch me. I don't know my way around here."

They took me to the mall (to my disgust), but luckily, they didn't look at clothes or anything.

"Need anything?" Opal said, a bit calmed down. "Celine here said that she would buy anything for you… You know, filthy rich people?"

I laughed. "Now that I think about it, my sneakers are falling apart, and my backpack's zipper is broken and won't zip!"

Celine made a face. "Fine. Just for today."

We went to buy my sneakers, and Celine just shoved a random pair of navy blue Nikes onto the counter.

"How polite," I smirked.

"You should be, since I'm buying you stuff," Celine said. She completed the purchase and gave me the shoe box. "I'm starting to regret bringing you here."

"I'll bring you a souvenir from my 'field trip,'" I promised.

"And one for me!" Opal cheered.

Celine bought a gray Kipling backpack like my broken red one.

"Thanks," I smiled. I looked in my wallet. "I'll buy you two Starbucks."

Celine's eyes widened. "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

She raced off.

"Hey, I have two backpacks now, you know!" I yelled, immediately quieting at the amount of staring people.

I saw Spring pickpocketing some money from a stranger, and I just walked away.

"Stealing," Opal said disapprovingly, when she saw what I was looking at.

I shrugged. "Celine's waiting for us."

I bought both of them their drinks and we started walking back to school.

"Why didn't you get one, Jenna?" Opal asked sipping her strawberry… whatever it was.

"Too fattening for you?" Celine teased.

My face turned red. I didn't drink any soda, coffee, or anything unhealthy really. It was especially hard at home because most of the time there were only instant ramen to eat.

Celine wafted her drink under my nose as if to tempt me, and I pushed it off.

We leisurely enjoyed our walk back to our dorms. Opal and I went into ours and Celine went off to her own.

I sighed in relief as I saw that our other dorm mate wasn't here. I dropped my things by my bunk and started packing my things for tomorrow.

I grabbed a pair of spare clothes, some paper and pencils, my wallet, and a whole lot of contact lenses and stuffed them in my new backpack. I would pack toiletries later.

"What are you packing for? The field trip?" Opal asked, and I nodded.

I opened my book where I left off, and right then, our other dorm mate barged in.

"I'm back!" she said loudly.

"Welcome back, Ariana," I groaned.

Ariana had long brown hair and big brown eyes, and to my dismay, she was taller than me. She was so into fashion and makeup, it made me sick. She insisted on giving me and Opal tips on fashion which we always ignored.

She frowned. "You should actually try following my fashion advice, Jenny. Many people look up to me and my advice."

"It's Jenna!" I yelled. "And I do look up to you." I grinned. "In height."

She yelled in frustration, knowing she won't get anywhere with me. That was one good thing about her—she gave up easily. And thank God we had uniforms and a dress code—although they were adjusted by us students often.

I read some more, not able to concentrate because of someone's perfume.

"Oh, look, it's like time for dinner!" Opal said quickly.

"Already?" I said. My voice sounded weird, and I thought I tasted the perfume in my mouth. Bleh.

"It's six," Ariana said. "Let's go peeps."

"Can she speak normally?" I asked Opal.

"You mean like dull kind of normal?"

"Yeah, I guess."

She shrugged and Celine joined us later at our table.

"That's all you're eating?" Celine asked Opal.

Opal brought some salad, a loaf of bread, and some pasta. "I'm full from drinking Starbucks."

"The food here tastes kind of bad anyway," I said. "That's why we, um, eat most of our meals from the vending machines."

Celine gave me a doubtful look.

"So Lee, you actually took the trip outside of school to shop?" Spring asked, not exactly in a friendly way, as she walked past.

"It's Yi," I said. "And yeah, I did. Is it a surprise?"

"Lee, Yi, Rhee, same thing," she said. "Yeah, it _is_ a surprise to know that even a nerd would break the rules."

Opal shot me a nervous look, and Celine had a look that said, _Go for it!_ She idolized Coach Hedge too much.

"How would you feel if I said that I'm surprised to know that an athletic girl like you, who goes by instinct most of the time, gets an A in at least one class?" I said. "And you heard Coach Hedge. He said that I was a troublemaker."

"Yo, Spring! What's going on?" one of her friends, I have no idea who, came up to her.

"Nothing much," she grinned. "Just telling young Jenna here not to be late for our field trip tomorrow."

"Oh," she said. "Then let's go."

They left, and I didn't feel like eating anymore.

I was ranting my whole way back to our dorm. "What does she mean, 'telling me not to be late?' And 'young Jenna?' Really? I'm only a few months younger than her!"

"Six months younger," Opal said.

"Whatever!"

I kicked the door open and quickly got in to make sure no one was staring at me out there. I rolled on my bed which was on the right side of the room, isolated from the other two.

"I'm not feeling the best today, so tell Ariana not to bother me when she comes back," I said, shoving my face in my pillow.

"Do your bathroom routine first," Opal said.

"Yes, _Mom_," I sighed and conducted a rapid teeth brushing. I quickly changed in to my pj's—a baggy light blue shirt and gray sweatpants. I washed my hands and dried them. I stood there for a minute just staring into space before I took out my contact lenses, My vision became blurry right away. It was so annoying how bad my eyes were.

Opal was making her bed, and I jumped back on my bed. Unfortunately, I landed on the wrong place, and my side started to ache. I ignored it and shoved my face back into my pillow.

I didn't even know why I was feeling bad all of a sudden. Was it because of Spring? That wasn't fair. I couldn't just hate on someone without even knowing them well. I kept trying to tell myself that, but more I tried to convince myself, the more I seemed to be lying to myself.

I kept telling myself that, until I just fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

"You stuck up little girl."

"You always think you're the best at everything. Stop acting like you're not."

"Always hanging out with only a few 'special people.' Are we not good enough for you?"

I blocked my ears and shut my eyes, just running. Where, I didn't know. Anywhere that was away from here. I didn't want to hear all these insults.

I heard one voice that stood out from the others, like a ray of light in a dark place. "It's fine. Everything will be alright if you just—"

_"Wake up."_

I shot up in bed, a bit too relieved to get out of that dream. I saw someone standing next to my bed, and I guessed her to be Spring with my stupid blurry vision. Spring had her arms crossed already dressed in her uniform of a white blouse and a navy blue skirt that reached her knees. She had her backpack slung over her shoulder and her hair tied in a ponytail with her glasses on.

"It literally took you like ten minutes to wake up," she said rolling her eyes.

"Why are you here?" I groaned.

"Change of plans. We're leaving now," she said.

"Fine, let me get ready," I grumbled.

I changed into my uniform, unhappy about the skirt. I stuffed my pj's into my backpack and opened the drawer attached beneath the sink. I ripped open the contact lens case and tried to put them in quickly.

My eyes were red and there was still sleep in my eyes. My eyes stared back at me from the mirror. My eyes were gray on the darker side. It was a thing I was questioned about sometimes by my friends. I was half-Asian, and I have no idea who my mom is. I probably got her eyes.

I slightly flinched as I felt the lens fit into my right eye and took a bit more time with the left. I grumbled every time it fell out.

"Hurry," Spring rushed.

"I'm coming," I said.

I looked at Opal and Ariana. They were out like a light.

I made sure my book from Athena was in my hands and I followed Spring as she ran out of the dorms to the gym. Coach Hedge was waiting for us already finishing up his tofu burger.

"Took you two long enough," he said, munching the wrapper.

"Sorry," Spring said. "Jenna took her time getting ready."

I gave her a hard glare.

"Then let's get things going cupcakes!" Coach said and led us out of the school.

I noted that he wasn't wearing his pants or shoes. I guessed it helped him move faster.

"So where are we going exactly?" Spring asked.

"New York," Coach grunted. "You guys didn't bring any phones or other electronics did you?"

I shook my head. I didn't have a phone. I only had a laptop that was unusable because of the fact that there was no wi-fi.

"No," Spring said, "I forgot mine. Shoot."

"Good, 'cause you guys weren't to bring them," he said. "It attracts monsters."

"Can you tell what's going on first?" I said tentatively. "You still haven't explained."

"Yeah, like what you mean by monsters," Spring said. "Are they like that Cyclops we saw yesterday?"

"Calm your pegasi, cupcakes!" Coach said. "You two are demigods—you know children of gods and mortals."

"Like Perseus and Theseus," I recalled.

"Yes, yes. And Odysseus and a whole bunch of other euses!" Coach said. "And monsters smell them want to kill them—the fighting is awesome by the way—so we have this camp for demigods where they train over the summer."

"But it's not the summer," Spring said.

"Unless we find more demigods. Then we just bring them over," Coach finished.

He stopped by Starbucks and ordered a double espresso.

"New York… That's too far though, and won't we attract more monsters on the way?" I questioned.

Coach grunted. "There's this other camp in San Francisco, but it's Roman. Valdez once got them into a frenzy."

"I thought you liked fighting," I said as Coach handed his money and got his coffee.

"I do! But you know, they're kinda strict on everything. It might be uneasy for you guys."

Spring looked longingly at a cake pop before leaving Starbucks.

"But do they have any way of quick transportation?" I asked.

I personally did not want to take a plane to New York. First of all, we didn't have money, second, I hate planes. Especially their food.

"Maybe, not completely sure," he said. "They might be able to lend us a plane."

I groaned. So much for my wishful thinking. We kept walking to I'm-not-sure-where.

"Or," he said, "we can try to call some pegasi from camp. I'm not good at it, but I can do it."

I immediately brightened up, and noticed that Spring did too.

"Can you try?" she pleaded.

He got out his orange whistle and started blowing it, a bit too loud and a bit too close to my ear for my taste.

"I don't think that went all the way to New York," I said, my head buzzing. Although I had been really sleepy the second before, I was now alert thanks to a certain satyr.

"It did," he said confidently. "Here they come."

I looked up in the sky and saw two blotches in the sky—two white pegasi. They landed gracefully next to us and neighed.

I stared at them. They were _beautiful._ They both had a good build, even without the wings, and the wings made them look better.

Coach and the pegasi had a short conversation of neighing and whacking a baseball bat on the ground.

"Okay," Coach said. "I have to go back to the school to sort out some things, so you two go on ahead."

He trotted off leaving us with the pegasi. We stood there awkwardly.

"So…" Spring started. "Do we get on?"

I shrugged. I put my book in my backpack and reached out for the pegasus. He kneeled down slightly making it easier for me to get on. He stood back up right after I got, nearly throwing me off. I laughed.

Spring jumped onto hers a bit easier than I did, and the pegasi flapped their wings and soared off into the sky.

"I really don't think Coach should've let two inexperienced demigods ride two pegasi across the country," I shivered.

It was so cold up in the air it felt like I was being buried in snow. Then again, I didn't experience extreme colds often.

"Too late," Spring said.

She was shivering too, but didn't seem to have any other concerns.

"Can you guys go a bit faster please?" I said to the horses, hoping they would understand.

Mine bucked a little, signaling me to hold on tight. With a huge flap of its wings, it zoomed across the sky faster than any airplane. Everything blurred around me, and when things came into focus again, the sun was shining down at us at a grassy hill, though there was snow outside of the hills.

The pegasus zoomed down towards the stables, and came to a stop. I got off and nearly fell on my face. Some of the campers at the stables stared at us as we slid off. I felt my face burning red once more.

All the campers were dressed in orange shirts that said _Camp Half-Blood._ I opened my backpack and took my book out again. I didn't feel safe here, and at least with the book, I had some sort of defense.

"New campers?" one of them asked.

A guy with messy black hair and green eyes came out and took the pegasi back to the stables.

"So Coach Hedge is your protector?" he asked.

We nodded.

He smirked. "How responsible of him to just send two demigods to camp from California on pegasi."

"He said that he had to 'sort out some things' at school," Spring said.

He shrugged. "Hey, Butch, can you continue the pegasi riding without me? I'm gonna take these two to Chiron."

"Sure, Perce."

I hugged the book tighter to my chest and followed him to wherever he was going.

"By the way," he said, "I never got your names."

"I'm Spring Rhodes," Spring said without any hesitation.

"Jenna Yi," I said quietly.

"Percy Jackson," he offered. "Anyway, Chiron will probably show you guys the orientation film at the Big House and get someone to show you around camp."

We arrived at a big blue house with an eagle shaped weathervane on the roof.

"And a bit of advice," he said. "Don't get on our director's nerves."

"And who's that? And what's he gonna do?" Spring said.

"Who knows. He might turn you into a dolphin or a shrub. A regular day at camp," he grinned. He opened the door and did a mock bow. "Ladies first."


End file.
